


Who doesn't love the beach?

by RadioactiveDeLorean



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Beaches, Carnivals, Kinda, Not Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Compliant, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter is still freaked out by what happened during Homecoming, Precious Peter Parker, This basically ignores all canon okay?, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark is Good With Kids, Tony is there to give hugs and help him, also JARVIS is awesome and needs more appreciation, also tony still has the arc reactor, as always, bc Tony and Steve aren't ripping each other's throats out, bc Tony is a good parental figure, slight PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-26
Updated: 2018-05-26
Packaged: 2019-05-14 02:50:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14761170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RadioactiveDeLorean/pseuds/RadioactiveDeLorean
Summary: Ever since he was dropped into the lake by Toomes, however, things had been exponentially worse. He could barely spend five minutes in the shower without his chest feeling tight, or the shower curtain feeling like the folds of his parachute restricting him from reaching the surface of the water. Taking a bath was way out of the question. He actively tried to avoid puddles when walking in the rain and had skipped the swimming lesson his gym teacher had taught at the local leisure centre.So naturally, being at the beach made Peter feelterrified.





	Who doesn't love the beach?

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't written anything in months so this is probably a load of nonsense, but ever since I watched Infinity War, I had to write something involving Tony and Peter. It's obligatory at this point.  
> This basically ignores everything that happens in Civil War apart from the introduction of Peter, so yeah.
> 
> Edit 27/05: I hadn't seen Age of Ultron before posting this, so I wasn't aware that JARVIS was implemented into the artificial body to create Vision, so technically JARVIS should be FRIDAY here but I can't be bothered to change it. Hence why JARVIS and Vision exist at the same time.

Peter Parker had always hated swimming.    
  
The feeling of being unable to keep both feet planted firmly on the ground, the ever-changing current of the water pulling his body around against his own free will, not to mention the fact that he sank like a stone whenever he was in water any deeper than about a foot. Aunt May and Uncle Ben had taken him swimming a lot when he was younger, but he’d never been able to swim more than a couple of metres. As he grew older, he started getting more and more embarrassed by that fact and ended up refusing to go to the pool. His uncle and aunt had eventually stopped trying to take him once they saw how terrified he was of being in the water. 

Ever since he was dropped into the lake by Toomes, however, things had been exponentially worse. He could barely spend five minutes in the shower without his chest feeling tight, or the shower curtain feeling like the folds of his parachute restricting him from reaching the surface of the water. Taking a bath was way out of the question. He actively tried to avoid puddles when walking in the rain and had skipped the swimming lesson his gym teacher had taught at the local leisure centre.    
  
So naturally, being at the beach made Peter feel  _ terrified.  _

It had been Bruce’s idea. He had always found going to the beach a comfort as a child, and what with the heightened stress recently, he figured everyone could use a break. When Peter had been told the Avengers were planning a trip to the beach, he’d been petrified. He hadn’t been able to voice his opinion on the matter, over the fear of letting everyone down. He’d messed up enough in the past, and letting down any of the Avengers, especially Tony Stark, was completely out of the question.    
  
So Peter keeps his head down during the coach ride from the compound to the beach. Even Happy seemed, well …  _ happy  _ to be coming along. Thor and Clint chat animatedly at the front of the coach, with Tony, Bruce and Steve gossipping in the seats behind them. Peter sits at the back of the coach on his own, hugging his backpack close to his chest and wishing he’d stayed at home. He spends the majority of the ride playing on his phone or reading a book.    
  
When Happy pulls the coach to a stop in the parking lot by the beach, everyone gleefully piles out with their various bags. They go to find somewhere to change into their swimwear, while Peter sluggishly makes his way off the coach. He stands beside the coach and watches as everyone goes off to change. He doesn’t follow them, instead deciding to sit on the low rock wall by the edge of the sand. He continues to hug his backpack close to him, staring out as the waves roll in and out across the sand a few dozen yards ahead. 

He feels a hand clap down on his shoulder and nearly fell off the wall in shock. He looks up to find Thor grinning at him, dressed in only a pair of swimming trunks with a towel draped over one shoulder. “Come, Son of Parker! The beach awaits us!”   
  
“R-right, I was just waiting for one of the changing rooms to be available,” Peter grins sheepishly, cursing at the way his voice trembles. Thor doesn’t seem to notice and instead instigates a race down to the water’s edge. Peter watches the others run down to the water, his stomach twisting as he watches Clint immediately leap into the waves. Bruce, Thor and Wanda all follow. Vision stands at the edge of the water and merely splashes anyone who gets too close to him.    
  
Peter feels sick as he watches everyone else have fun without him. He hugs his backpack a little tighter, resting his chin on the top of it. Yet again, he feels as though he doesn’t fit in with the others around him. He’s being reminded of all the times he was left out of group activities, where he had to sit and watch his peers have fun, all while sat alone. Things improved when he met Ned at high school, but even then things hadn’t been that great. Now, sitting alone on the wall as he watches everyone have fun, Peter feels that loneliness creeping up on him again. 

That’s odd, though, he can’t see Tony anywhere…

As if on cue, Peter feels a hand on his shoulder and catches sight of Tony sitting beside him on the wall. He’s wearing knee-length cargo shorts and a navy blue tank top, the familiar pale blue glow of his arc reactor showing through his clothes. “Staying high and dry, huh?”   
  
Peter glances away and nods, his stomach still doing summersaults. “Yeah, I - I can’t swim, so…”   
  
“Oh really?” Tony asks with a hint of scepticism. “Because I’m pretty sure Barton can’t swim either, but that ain’t stopping him.”   
  
Peter swallows hard, unable to bring himself to look Tony in the eye. “I - I … I don’t like water…”   
  
“Neither do I, particularly. I can’t go in because of this thing.” Tony taps his knuckles against the arc reactor in his chest. “The saltwater will mess everything up.”   
  
Peter glances at the glowing disk in his mentor’s chest, before looking back out at the waves again. “Yeah, I wouldn’t wanna see you get electrocuted…”   
  
Tony frowns. “Alright, come on, there’s the amusement park just over there, why don’t we dump our beach stuff back on the coach and head over?”   
  
“Sure,” Peter smiles a little. He gets up from the wall and follows Tony back to the coach, They both toss their bags back inside and Tony locks up again before they head over to the amusement park. Before they even arrive, they can hear the sound of cheering and screaming from various rides. Peter seems to lighten up a little bit as they approach. 

Tony guides him over to a stand to the left of the entrance, where the goal appears to be to knock over a stack of tin cans in order to win a prize. “Come on kiddo, you should get this no problem, right?”   
  
“Mr Stark, I’m almost seventeen, I’m a bit old for carnival games.” Peter rolls his eyes, though he can’t keep the grin off his face.    
  
Tony merely smirks. “Fine, then. If you won’t play, then I will.” He eyes the rack of prizes and smirks, before stepping into line. Once it’s his turn, he takes hold of one of the baseballs with a grin, bringing the ball up to just past his ear before throwing it. He hits the centre can on the bottom row of the stack, sending all six cans flying. Grinning at Peter as the attendant re-stacks the cans, Tony takes hold of the second baseball, easily repeating the shot. He does so a third time and easily wins himself top prize.    
  
The attendant looks as though  _ he’s  _ just won a prize, too, asking Tony if it was cool for him to get a photo with him. Tony, being his overconfident self, immediately agrees, which clearly makes the attendant’s day. After the photo has been taken (and Tony has signed an autograph), he picks out his prize while Peter checks his phone. When he looks up, he almost drops his phone in shock. Tony is standing there, brandishing a two-foot-long Spiderman plush toy with the biggest shit-eating grin Peter has ever seen plastered on his face. 

“W-wh - but - Mr Stark!” Peter stammers helplessly, blushing bright red as Tony just stands there and grins.    
  
“What’s the matter, Parker?” Tony smirks, the Spiderman toy tucked under one arm. “Don’t like it?”   
  
Peter huffs and puts his phone in his pocket, glaring. “I swear to God, Mr Stark -”   
  
“What?” Tony chuckles. “I’m sure plenty of kids have won one of these. You’re not exactly in any danger.”

“Mr Stark!” Peter whines. “Come on! This isn’t fair!”   
  
Tony merely shrugs. “You didn’t want to play.”   
  
Peter crosses his arms and huffs again. “Because I’m not a little kid anymore!”   
  
“Neither am I, but  _ I’m  _ the one with the Spiderman toy.” Tony sticks his tongue out. “Would it really kill you to have a go?”   
  
Peter rolls eyes and huffs again, before marching over to stand in line at the stall again. He shoots Tony a playful smirk out of the corner of his eye as he steps up to the stand, paying the play fee before grabbing one of the baseballs. Easily, he knocks over the stack of cans three times, just as Tony had done. He picks out his own prize from the top of the rack and saunters back over to Tony.    
  
Tony nearly spits out his soda as Peter walks back over to him, a large Iron Man stuffed toy under one arm. “What’s the matter, Mr Stark?” Peter asks innocently, with the same shit-eating grin Tony had displayed now on his own face. 

“You little shit,” Tony mutters, though the smirk on his face betrays the stern edge to his voice. “Guess you’re learning from the best, huh?”   
  
“Damn right,” Peter grins. “Now c’mon, I see a ferris wheel over there and I wanna get some good photos.”

Tony rolls his eyes. “Alright. Lead the way, kiddo.”   
  
Peter grins and grabs Tony’s arm in his free hand, all but dragging him over to the ferris wheel. The pair stands in line, the plush toy versions of each other’s superhero aliases tucked under their arms. Nobody seems to bat an eye at the pair, except for asking Tony for photos or signatures. Tony drags Peter into pretty much every photo, though by some miracle he’s able to refrain from telling people  _ why  _ Peter is in the photos.    
  
Eventually, the pair reaches the front of the queue and step into a vacant carriage on the ferris wheel, sitting side-by-side with their plush superheroes beside them. Almost immediately, the ferris wheel begins its slow rotation upwards. Peter smiles a little as he looks out at the view of the beach. The way the sun glints off the waves looks stunning from this distance, but despite the fact that they’re far from the water’s edge, fear still churns in the young man’s stomach.    
  
“So,” Tony starts off casually, slinging an arm around the teen’s shoulders. “What’s the real reason you weren’t out swimming with the others?”   
  
Peter’s heart skips a beat and a lump forms almost instantly in his throat, making his response come out as nothing more than a choked gasp. “I - I - umm… I don’t like seawater; it’s dirty and cold and gross.”   
  
“The sand isn’t though,” Tony points out. “Yet you weren’t even on the beach; you were sitting on a wall several dozen yards from the sand.”   
  
“I - I don’t like getting sand in my shoes. It’s itchy.”   
  
“You’ve got sneakers on, kiddo. The only way you’d get sand in those would be if you took them off and scooped sand into them.” Tony frowns. “C’mon, I know you’re lying to me. You trust me, don’t you?”   
  
“You know I do, Mr Stark, it’s just…” Peter sighs, glancing at the Iron Man stuffed toy next to him. “You’d laugh at me if I told you.”   
  
“Kid, when have I ever laughed at you?”   
  
Peter shoots him a look. “You always laugh at me! You did it the first time we met!”   
  
“Kid, you’d been running around Queens in what was essentially a onesie,” Tony points out. “You have to admit, it was pretty laughable.”   
  
“You did it when I told you I was scared of moths.”   
  
“Because they’re harmless and pose no danger to anyone.”   
  
“You did it when you sent me home in those ridiculous  _ Hello Kitty  _ pants and that oversized shirt!” Peter looks genuinely hurt by the memory, his arms now wrapped around himself. “Do you have any idea how many people took photos of me because of that? Or how badly Flash picked on me for the next week?”   
  
Tony’s expression softens and he slowly removes his arm from Peter’s shoulders. “Why didn’t you say anything?”   
  
“Because … because I couldn’t.” Peter sighs, looking away. “I just couldn’t. You were already so mad at me, and you and Happy were both ignoring me, a-and… I felt that if I told you, you’d only laugh more and tell me I deserved it.”

“I mean, you  _ did  _ kinda lead to the destruction of the ferry, and to several dozen cars ending up in the water.” Tony reminds him   
  
“Not helpful, Mr Stark,” Peter huffs. “You saw me trying to hold that ferry together! You saw that I’d shot as much webbing as I could across the gap to try and hold it together! I did everything that I could to prevent that ferry from falling apart!”   
  
Before Tony can interject, Peter continues. “You wanna know the real reason why I’m scared of going in the water? Or why I can’t go inside old buildings? It’s because of Toomes. He dropped me in a lake and I got caught in my parachute. Before you sent your suit after me, I thought I was going to  _ die,  _ Mr Stark. I thought I was going to drown and sink to the bottom of the lake and that nobody was ever gonna find me a-and that Aunt May would lose her shit trying to find me but nobody ever would because I’d be at the bottom of the lake!”   
  
“Peter -”   
  
“And the reason why I’m scared of old buildings?! Toomes!  _ Again!  _ He dropped a  _ warehouse on me!  _ Except this time, you weren’t there! I was wearing that “onesie” because you took away the other suit, so I didn’t have a tracker or a radio headset, o-or an AI telling me how bad things were or how I could get myself out! I was  _ crying,  _ Mr Stark! I was panicking and crying because I thought I was going to die alone under all that rubble! Because I knew you weren’t gonna come and save me! And then I heard that Toomes was gonna hijack your plane a-and then I got  _ more  _ panicked because I thought I’d let you down a-and -”   
  
_ “Peter!”  _ Tony grabs hold of his hand, giving it a tight squeeze. “Listen to me! I’m not angry with you about that! I’m sorry, okay?”   
  
“I don’t care that - wait what?” Peter blinks in surprise. Out of everything he had been expecting to come out of Tony Stark’s mouth, it certainly hadn’t been an  _ apology.  _

“I said I’m sorry, kid,” Tony clarifies, his voice considerably softer now. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there to get you out of that rubble, and I’m sorry I wasn’t there to help you out  _ before  _ you fell into the lake. I should have done more, kiddo, but I didn’t.”   
  
“Mr Stark, that wasn’t your fault…”   
  
“Remember what I told you? On top of that building? After the ferry incident?” Tony asks.    
  
“You said I was nothing without that suit,” Peter frowns. “Mr Stark, you’re not doing a great job of making me feel better here.”   
  
“No, no, forget I said that,” Tony waves his hand around loosely. “I meant the thing about you dying. If you died, I’d feel like that was my fault. Because I’m the one who gave you that suit, and that makes me responsible for you. If you died, kid, it…” he has to take a deep breath before he can continue. “It would ruin me. It’d completely destroy me.”   
  
“I-it would?” Peter asks in a small voice, something unfamiliar coiling in his stomach.    
  
“Of course it would!” Tony exclaims. “If I lost you, kid, I don’t know what I’d do. Probably pitch myself off the top of the old Avengers tower, for one thing. Drown myself in vodka for another.”   
  
Peter gapes like a fish out of water, unsure of what to say, do or think. “M-Mr Stark? You’d really do that if I died?”   
  
“Stop  _ asking  _ if I would!  _ Yes,  _ I would jump off the Avengers tower, most likely after getting so shitfaced, I couldn’t see straight.  _ Yes,  _ I would  _ absolutely _ be completely ruined if I lost you, Peter,” Tony emphasises. “How many more times do I have to say it?”   
  
Peter’s eyes are watering now, and the lump in his throat is back. His lower lip is trembling, so he bites down on it to stop it moving. “M-Mr Stark…?”

Tony frowns in concern before his eyes go wide as he notices the tears in Peter’s. “Shit, kid, I didn’t mean to-”   
  
Before Tony can get another word out, Peter is hugging him so tightly he thinks a rib might break. Peter’s face is buried in the crook of Tony’s neck and the billionaire swears that he can feel something wet dripping into the fabric of his tank top. Slowly, he brings his own arms up around the teenager and returns the hug, though he does poke Peter in the back.    
  
“G-gonna have to let up the pressure a little bit there, buddy, I’m struggling to breathe here.”   
  
“Shit, sorry,” Peter apologises immediately and lets up almost entirely. “I keep forgetting I’m stronger than you are.”   
  
Tony smiles and ruffles his hair lightly, much more comfortable now. He returns the hug as much as he can from their sideways sitting position, his smile widening at the way Peter nuzzles his head in closer to Tony’s chest. “Comfy there, kiddo?”   
  
“Mmhhmm,” Peter hums and nods, a small smile on his face. “I’m sorry I freaked you out so much, Mr Stark.”   
  
“Relax, kiddo, it’s okay,” Tony assures him, rubbing small circles across Peter’s back. “You’re one of us, and honestly I’d be surprised if you didn’t get into trouble at least once a week. Just know that I’ll always have your back, okay?”   
  
“Thanks, Mr Stark.” The teenager smiles as he sits upright. Tony’s arm is still around his shoulders, but neither of them feels the need to pull away. It feels  _ right,  _ somehow, this closeness. It makes Peter feel the same way he felt as a kid, snuggled up on the couch with his aunt and uncle, wrapped up in blankets and watching movies. It makes him feel  _ happy.  _ Safe. Comforted. 

The pair sits together like that until their ferris wheel cart reaches the ground again. They gather up their stuffed toys and exit the cart. Peter is already looking around for another game to play. Grinning, he grabs Tony’s arm and drags him over to one of the games involving hooking up rubber ducks with various numbers on the bottoms of them, where the size of the total from all the ducks indicates the size of the prize. 

Tony merely chuckles as they stand in line, subtly tapping the frame of his glasses. With a quiet hum, a screen appears across his lenses and JARVIS’ voice is in his ear. “Hey, J’, lemme know which ones have the highest number on ‘em, would ya?”   
  
_ “Mr Stark, I advise against cheating in this game. What kind of example does that set for your young protege?” _ __  
__  
“Relax, J’,” Tony smirks. “It’s not for me. Hey kid.” He taps Peter on the shoulder. He slips his glasses off and pushes them onto Peter’s nose once Peter has turned around. “JARVIS is gonna help you out, okay?”   
  
“Mr Stark,” Peter giggles a little bit as he adjusts the glasses on his nose. “This is cheating.”   
  
“So what?” Tony smirks. “Just go for it.”   
  
Peter rolls his eyes and turns to look at the stand. He now has JARVIS’ voice in his ear.    
  
__ “The third duck in from the outer row, facing backwards, has the number ten on the bottom,”  JARVIS informs him, highlighting said duck on the projection for him. Smirking to himself, Peter picks up the rod with the hook on the bottom of it and hooks up the duck. The stall attendant takes the duck from Peter’s fishing rod and announces the number. Peter, with JARVIS’ help, hooks a number seven and a number nine, giving himself a total of 26. The attendant allows Peter to pick any prize he wants, so he goes for a stuffed toy lion from the middle rack. 

Subtly, Peter hands the glasses back to Tony, and Tony takes his turn at the game. Purely for his own ego, he hooks a clean 30 and picks out a stuffed toy snake, which he drapes around his neck like a cheap scarf. Peter grins, and they make their way towards a different game. 

After several hours, and with probably too much help from JARVIS, the pair end up with an armful each of stuffed toys. They give most of them to a large family just entering the park, Peter keeping the Iron Man one and the lion one and Tony only hanging onto the Spiderman one. The mother of the small herd of children thanks the pair endlessly, claiming that she only had enough money for the kids to try out one game each. Tony brushes her thanks away and presses some of what he calls “loose change” into her hand before himself and Peter leave the park.    
  
“How much did you give her?” Peter asks as they walk in the direction of the coach.    
  
“About forty bucks.” Tony shrugs. “She had five kids with her; she’ll need the cash.”

“And I thought you didn’t like kids,” Peter smirks. 

Tony shrugs again, though he’s smirking. “It doesn’t hurt anyone to be nice once in a while.”   
  
Peter snorts in amusement. “You’re telling that to the guy who spends most of his time helping old ladies cross the street.”

Tony chuckles. “We’ll get you a real job, don’t you worry.”   
  
Peter grins. “Sure thing, and until that time I can just crash with you guys, right?”   
  
Tony raises one eyebrow. “As if we’d let some modified arachnid teenager run riot in the street by himself.”   
  
“Hey, I was doing that for months before you came and got me the first time,” Peter points out, an amused grin on his face. 

“And what a fool I was for letting that continue,” Tony says dramatically, making Peter laugh. The pair continues their light banter until they reach the coach, just in time to greet the others making their way back from the beach. Happy’s hair is about eighty percent seaweed now and Thor is complaining about sand in his swimming trunks. 

“Where were you guys?” Steve asks, busy towelling off the rest of the seawater from his shoulders. “We didn’t see you at the beach.”   
  
“Peter got cold feet, so we headed to the amusement park instead,” Tony explains. 

“Everything alright, Son of Parker?” Thor asks with a frown, laying a sandy but surprisingly gentle hand on Peter’s shoulder. 

“Yeah, I’m okay,” Peter nods with a small smile, holding up the prizes he’d won at the park. That seems to convince everyone, as they all head over to the parked coach.    
  
“Oh no, you all better go shower off.” Happy waves his arms around. “You’ll get sand and seawater everywhere, and I’m not paid enough to clean this whole damn coach.”

There are some scattered protests, but Happy handles the situation well and soon everyone except Peter and Tony are off to the block of communal showers nearby. Tony and Peter climb back into the coach to wait for the others. Peter expects Tony to sit in the middle of the coach where he was on the journey over, so he’s naturally surprised when the billionaire sits beside him at the back of the coach.

“Mr Stark? Didn’t you wanna sit with Captain America again?”   
  
“Nah, he was chatting too much about old man stuff,” Tony smirks, making himself comfortable in the seat next to Peter. “Besides, there ain’t enough room for Spiderman up front.” He gestures to the way he’s strapped his Spiderman plushie into the seat beside him.    
  
Peter grins, pointing at how he’s done the same thing to his Iron Man plushie. “Gotta keep the li’l guys safe too, right?”   
  
Tony grins and ruffles Peter’s hair again. “Damn right, kiddo.”   
  
Peter whines lightly about having his hair ruffled, but smiles, leaning slightly against Tony’s side. “Thanks, Mr Stark, for taking me to the amusement park instead of the beach.”   
  
“No problem, kiddo,” Tony smiles, looping his arm around Peter’s shoulders. “I take it you had fun?”   
  
“Hell yeah,” Peter grins, leaning a little more into Tony’s embrace. The same feeling of safety envelopes him again and he lets his eyes drift shut, savouring the moment. Before he knows it or can do anything about it, he’s fallen asleep.    
  
After they’ve gotten themselves cleaned up, the rest of the Avengers return to the coach to find Tony and Peter sitting together at the back of the coach. Peter’s lion plush is tucked under one of his arms and Tony has his arm draped around the teenager’s shoulders. Both of them are asleep, Tony’s cheek resting against the top of Peter’s head. Nobody has the heart to disturb them, so they quietly get back into their seats and Happy starts up the coach. After one final check to make sure that nobody has left anything behind, they’re on their way back to the Avengers compound. Peter and Tony sleep for the whole journey. 

Peter still hates going swimming, and showers are still a struggle for him, and  _ sure,  _ he might get hurt when he goes out on patrol sometimes, but at least he knows that Mr Stark will always have his back. 


End file.
